> China is the pro-trade side. They'll be willing to make concessions, do the work, etc. It's the beijing consensus now, not washington.
China isn't pro trade per se. They're pro export, in the old mercantilist sense. They've spent the last 30 years heavily restricting trade access into and within China by foreign entities.
They'll amass around a $900 billion to $1 trillion trade surplus with the EU over the five years 2015-2019. For the US of course it's even worse, closer to a likely $1.7 trillion over that time.
Here's how the China trade illusion works (and the West keeps falling for it for some reason):
Have vast, rigid restrictions on market access that few to none of your big trading partner nations have. Use an endless variety of means - some subtle, some beligerent - to thwart foreign entry and competition with domestic businesses (whether state owned or entirely private).
When caught behaving badly or not living up to promised standards (eg for the last two decades re the World Trade Organization), promise to improve, drag your feet, buy more time, make subtle improvements, tout those improvements while moving backwards on other things. All the while your actual goal is to get big enough to not have to ever play nice.
While you do all of that, pretend you're in favor of free trade. Tout that you are, yell it from the roof tops. It doesn't matter if you actually are, it doesn't matter what the actual condition of trade access is on the ground, what matters is that you act as the face of free trade through the process of touting it. It's all about buying more time by sowing confusion over what the real picture is and what's actually occurring (are they liberalizing, are they not, are they going to?).
Then one day in the near future you wake up and have a $30 trillion economy with little to no need of the imports from the EU or US. You also no longer need their capital at all. The foreign traders and investors can see themselves out if they disagree.
> Imagine a Chinese company operating in the states, with an a fully imported senior management and all "c-level" discussions in chinese. I dunno.
All foreign corporations are free to do exactly that in the US market. The sole practical consideration is being able to speak English to interact with the wider economy. If Toyota or Nintendo want to run their US subsidiaries with imported talent, they can do so. There are probably no large economies that have been more welcoming to foreign companies and imports than the US over the last 30 or 40 years. We let Toyota come in and kick Detroit's ass, and that was at a time when Detroit still had immense political power. Picture China allowing Google to do the same to Baidu right now.